


Again

by prosodiical



Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Getting Together, Multi, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-19 16:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8217385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: A new-old familiar Hinata saves her from Enoshima's trap, but now Chiaki has a long-haired shadow and a class teetering on the brink of Despair.(Or: After SDR2, Hinata travels back in time to save the girl. He does, but that's just the start.)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvilMuffins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/gifts).



> I took your 'Hinata travels back in time to fix things' and, uh, it got a little out of hand, sorry! I really hope you like this!
> 
> Thanks a bunch to NightsMistress for the quick beta!

Chiaki's starting to wonder if she'll get out of this one.

She stumbles, her side bleeding too much over her fingers, her legs already aching. The traps follow patterns she knows from dozens, hundreds of games but she doesn't have a health bar and she’s hurt by every mistake she makes. And she knows it'll only get worse. "They'll come," she says, quietly to herself, pausing against a clear wall for just a moment to catch her breath. "They'll come."

Even though she thinks it, thinks of all her classmates rushing in to save her, or even just finding them again at the end, it hurts a little more. She believes in them - but she believed in Yukizome-sensei, too, in Tsumiki, in -

She’s too slow to dodge when she feels her elbow snag on something, and she winces pre-emptively, preparing for the pain. But there is none, just a gentle pressure, and she opens her eyes and stares into the darkness and - "Hinata-kun?"

He looks... different. She remembers him from recently, his hair long, his expression so painfully blank. This Hinata, one eye his normal green, gives her a gentle smile and tugs her back behind a wall, and puts a finger over her mouth when she opens it in confusion. "I shouldn't be here," he whispers, "but I need to get you out of here."

He takes her down a corridor her instincts told her was the wrong one in this maze, passing by traps and helping her through. But they stop in front of a wall, completely blank, and he stares at it for a long moment as Chiaki ventures, “Where did you come from?” In the shadows of the corridor he looks distinctly strange, older and self-assured, and she doesn’t understand at all.

He shakes his head, looking deep in thought. "I shouldn't be here," he repeats. "Of course it’s shut, someone must’ve - " and he cuts himself off, frowning into the darkness. "Hey, do you think you’ll be okay going on alone just a little further?"

Chiaki looks at him, this Hinata with warm mismatched eyes and a soft smile, and remembers him from before, like he was. "We’re - we’re friends, right?"

"Of course," he says.

She closes her eyes, presses her hand against her side, where the blood is slowly congealing on her fingers. "Then," she says, "I trust you, Hinata-kun."

"Thanks," he says, "but just in case," and as they head back to where he pulled her around the corner he explains the rest of the maze, each separate trap she needs to avoid. "I’ll be at the end," he says, "I promise."

"That girl who put me here," Chiaki says, "the one on the screen - "

Hinata glances at the corridor they passed, and Chiaki does too - and realises it doesn’t have any cameras, unlike all the others. "We’ll get you out of here first," he says. “I promise, Nanami. You’ll live.”

His eyes are burning, and Chiaki manages a weak smile as she glances around the corner, to the rest of the maze, to where the end must be. "I always knew someone would come," she says, quietly. "We’re friends, after all."

Hinata squeezes her arm, and lets go. When she looks back, she can’t see him at all.

The rest of the maze isn’t as much of a struggle. Chiaki’s side still snaps with pain when she steps wrong, and she doesn’t dodge a series of darts quite fast enough to miss it piercing deep into her thigh, the pain bringing tears to her eyes, but she sees the goal door and limps toward it, dodging whirling blades as she goes. "You’re much better than I expected, Nanami-senpai!" says the voice through the speakers, girlishly gleeful. "You really are the Ultimate Gamer!"

"I’m going to see everyone again," Chiaki says, "they’ll come for me. You’ll see."

She reaches the door, and sets her hand, slippery with her own blood, on the handle. She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment and twists the doorknob, taking in the bright shine of light that flares out. It feels like relief heavy in her chest, like she’ll see all of them again, and she takes one step forward, two -

And gasps, breath shoved out of her, as she’s yanked abruptly to the side.

She hears the sound of metal slicing through flesh a moment later, and forces herself to look to her side as the light flares and dims, something hitting the floor with a terrible wet sound. Hinata’s expression is solemn and tired as he resolves in her view, and he gives her a tight, wan smile. "Good job," he says, quietly, and scans her, his gaze lingering on her wounds. “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” she says, her attention caught by the place where she would have been. She limps carefully over the trapped floor to the body lying in the center, pierced by more than a dozen spikes. "Who is she?" Chiaki ignores the pain to kneel down and brush the girl’s brown hair out of her eyes. She has a blissful expression on her face, giant gashes on her wrists, and the new wounds are barely bleeding; she thinks she remembers something like it from a detective game. "Was she dead, before this?"

Hinata’s steps are quiet, and when she looks up he’s standing directly beside her, eyes fixed on the shadows. "One of Enoshima’s test subjects,” he says. “I don’t know who she was, but you do. You saw me come through, didn't you?"

Bemused, Chiaki follows his gaze, to where a section of shadow detaches, resolves. "A localised temporal disturbance," says the shadow, and he looks like Chiaki remembers in flashes, the emotionless curiosity of a person entirely new. They stare at each other, the old Hinata and the new one, and she thinks it might be funny if it wasn't so strange. "You would not have been able to return."

"Hinata-kun?" Chiaki wonders, and Hinata glances at her when the shadow's look travels over her, through. She feels heavy, slow, and it's not tempered at all by the way everything still hurts, the way her blood is coagulating on her hands, the dead body before them.

"Souda and I accounted for a minor effect," Hinata says, "as long as I returned quickly enough. But once you saw me..." He sighs, shaking his head, and gives Chiaki a tired smile as he holds his hand out to her. "Nanami, we should get out of here. You won't stop us, will you?" he directs at the shadow.

"Should I?" the shadow asks, and Chiaki catches the flicker of emotion over Hinata's face, memory and grief. "In the original timeline, Nanami Chiaki would be dead. But you..."

"She says something," Hinata murmurs, and his hand strays to his pocket, fingers tightening on something. He pulls it out after a long considering moment, and Chiaki sees it when he holds it out: her Gala Omega pin. She reaches up to her hair, feeling for it, but it's still there; whole, intact, the same item that the shadow slowly reaches out and plucks from Hinata's hand. "She'd probably say it now, actually," he says, and smiles at her.

"I," Chiaki says, "why are there two of you, Hinata-kun? What - what happened?" She looks at the one smiling at her gently to the one watching her like a vaguely-interesting stranger, and she says to that one, her voice cracking, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" asks the shadow, and Chiaki's chest hurts. She looks at Hinata, smiling, and back to the boy she used to know.

"Maybe... maybe everything turned out okay, in the end," she says, "but - I didn't try hard enough. We were friends, but then you never came back -" and she finds herself reaching out, uselessly, to the Hinata staring at her impassively. She thinks they must be the same, the Hinata she knew and this one, broken and blank, but she struggles to find him in his face. "I'm sorry," she says, "I couldn't help you enough."

"You're sorry," Hinata repeats, and his expression doesn't shift, doesn't change. "Why?"

"I - wanted to be a good friend," Chiaki says numbly, and she swallows and blinks, hard. "Hinata-kun..."

He doesn't move as she wavers and rises to her feet with Hinata’s hand on her elbow, as she steps carefully over the body between them. He doesn't move as she peers up into his face, as she looks down to her pin, resting in his hand. "I," she says, "I'm still your friend, Hinata-kun. And that means... if you need help, I'll try."

She looks up and meets his gaze, piercing red as he studies her. If something changes, she can’t tell, but his eyes glance away, over her shoulder, and he says, "You're leaving."

"What," says the other Hinata, eyebrows rising, "you're coming too?"

Chiaki turns, takes his hand when he offers it to her, presses her hand against the blood sluggishly oozing from her side when his eyes shift down. "We need to get you somewhere safe," Hinata says, and looks over at the other, standing still and silent by her side. "And then..."

"My classmates?" Chiaki asks, tentatively. "Are they okay?"

Hinata considers for a moment, and then looks at his other. "It won't be boring, Izuru."

Chiaki says, "Izuru?"

"Kamukura Izuru," the shadow answers, abruptly. "You want me to keep her safe."

"Yes," says Hinata, "won't it be interesting? And anyway," he adds, "someone needs to deal with Enoshima Junko."

"Boring," the shadow - Kamukura - dismisses, but when Chiaki looks over at him his gaze is fixed on her. "Nanami Chiaki. Follow me."

"Hinata-kun?" she asks, as she steps toward Kamukura, glancing between them. There's a whole conversation between them she's sure she's missed, but - it's Hinata. "Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine," he says, smiling slightly. "And... we're both Hinata Hajime. Don't forget."

"I won't," Chiaki says. "I promise. I'm - I'll always be your friend."

Kamukura is standing further afield, and Chiaki walks as carefully as she can across the floor as he watches her, unmoving. When she glances back, Hinata's standing over the dead girl, a complicated expression on his face, and Chiaki looks back at Kamukura as she starts down the corridor he's standing by. He follows her like a shadow, completely silent, and Chiaki says, "That girl - was she a reserve course student?" as her limping footsteps echo down the hall.

Kamukura says, "Yes."

"Did you - did you know her?" Chiaki asks, tentatively. "What was her name?"

"Unimportant," Kamukura says stolidly, and Chiaki swallows and can feel the lump in her throat.

"Hinata-kun," she ventures, "are we going to save the rest of my class? If they're here - I need to help them, I can't just let them be - "

Kamukura's arm brushes hers, and the contact feels electric and makes her stop. It must be deliberate because everything he does is deliberate, and when she looks up at him he looks at her impassively, then inclines his head.

"Enoshima Junko will not want them to miss school tomorrow," he says, and Chiaki's mouth pulls into a frown, her confusion mounting. He looks at her, and then glances away. "You will see them then."

"But," Chiaki presses, "will they be okay? Whatever Enoshima-san is doing, can't I help?"

She doesn't see him coming. It isn't like Enoshima's traps, the patterns they followed things she knew already, familiar in the way that all games are; instead it's like she skipped a dozen frames and he's there as her back collides against the wall, his arm against her throat as the pain in her leg spikes sharply. She bites back her cry, can feel tears collecting in her eyes, and blinks, hard, to stop them from falling. "H-Hinata-kun?"

He stares at her for a long moment, and then steps back, giving a deliberate glance to her hands, dropping to clutch at her leg. "You are in no condition to fight Enoshima Junko," he says. "You will see your classmates tomorrow."

"But," Chiaki says, and squeezes her eyes shut as she tests her weight on her leg, as it bleeds freely over her fingers, "are they okay? If she's hurting them - "

"You would still try," he says, "like this?"

"It doesn't matter," Chiaki says, and she stumbles forward, gazing up at him as though if she tries hard enough, he'll understand. "Please, I need to know - I need to know they're okay."

He says, "What has been done is done. Nothing will change between now and your classes tomorrow."

"But what did she do to them?" she presses, and follows him unevenly down the hall. "That girl, the reserve course student, was she there so they'd think I'm dead? I have to help them, Hinata-kun."

"She was there," Kamukura says, "so Enoshima Junko would think you dead. Your class..."

"My class?" Chiaki asks, and he glances at her, eyes glinting against the grey hallway, alien in his detachment.

"You will see them tomorrow," he says, and stops, reaching out to the wall. Chiaki can't see anything different, but the panel shifts, moves, and reveals a set of stairs leading upward. She looks up at them, and then back the hallway they came down, long and unremarkable like the one she'd lost her class in, like the one Yukizome had led her down, and swallows.

"Are you sure?" she whispers. "Hinata-kun, do you promise they'll be okay?"

"Nothing will change," he repeats, and she studies his face for something, anything; it isn't there. "Until you meet them again."

She's hurt. It isn't just the wound in her side, her thigh still sluggishly bleeding; it's Komaeda collapsing in front of her, it's Tsumiki and Yukizome leading her to Enoshima's trap. It's the heavy, stifling weight in her chest that makes it hard to breathe whenever she looks at this Hinata, so foreign to her yet so achingly familiar, and she remembers what the other Hinata had said: _we're the same. Don't forget._

"Okay," she says, and drops her gaze to the stairs as she braces one hand on the wall, taking in the steep, careful climb as she tests the first step, wincing against the pain. "And, Hinata-kun? Thank you."

"I'm not helping you because I remember who I was," he says, seemingly content to take the stairs at her limping pace. "It will be interesting. That's all."

"But you're doing it because of the other Hinata-kun, aren't you?" Chiaki asks, pausing to catch her breath before she forges on. "And the other Hinata-kun... he remembered."

When she looks at him, he's staring down at something in his hand, eyebrows furrowed slightly; her pin, she recognises, and though it isn't hers, it could have been. "Yes," he says.

"It's enough," Chiaki says, "that you're trying, Hinata-kun. I know I - I didn't try enough."

He studies her and she thinks he might say something, but then his head tilts to the side and his face goes suddenly blank. "You should hurry," he says, and then she hears it, too: a low, rumbling noise that seems to reverberate through her feet into her bones. It jars her, a sharp, spiking pain, and she bites back her cry as her fingers curl on the unforgiving concrete wall and she looks up, at the seemingly endless stairs rising into the sunlight.

"I," Chiaki says, "I'm sorry."

She takes another step, and it shivers beneath her feet. Kamukura stands in front of her, and for a moment she wonders if he'll leave her here, to check on the disturbance or just get away, for her to walk the remainder alone. But the noise continues, increasingly louder, and when she looks up at him he's holding out his hand.

"It won't be interesting at all if you die," he says, and she shakes her head.

"Hinata-kun," she says, "life is interesting. Games are interesting, people are interesting. Maybe... you just need to learn where to look."

She thinks she sees a flicker of something like amusement cross his face as she takes his hand, and her breath escapes her in a rush as he sweeps her up like she's nothing. He takes the steps three at a time and she closes her eyes, presses her face into his shirt and thinks about how she must be spreading blood on his sleeves as the walls shake, as the rumbling grows heavier, louder.

She's blinking into the sunlight when they finally reach the outside and he continues some distance before her weak protests seem to filter through and he sets her back down to the ground. When Chiaki finds her footing on steady ground she sees why: the smoke winding into the sky, the ground around the exit collapsing, dirt and grass caving slowly inward. She watches it, feeling overwhelmed, and says, "My class is okay?"

"They are alive," he says. "Enoshima Junko would not stop her plans so easily."

Chiaki shakes her head, feeling the world sway as she does, and she looks down to see the blood still leaking from her leg, her fingers painted red. "I... should probably call an ambulance, huh?" Her legs give out from under her, muscles shaking, as she realises there's a loud persistent ringing in her ears. "Hey," she says quietly, as she looks up, to Kamukura - Hinata - wavering in her spotty vision, and she can almost imagine the old him overlaid. He's not all strange, she thinks fuzzily, because the old Hinata used to look at her like that sometimes, too. "Thanks."

"Blood loss," he says, and Chiaki can feel her mouth tilt into a smile.

"I think... I'll be okay. I just need..."

She can hear the blood rushing in her ears, the pounding of her heart, and the last she sees is his face fading to darkness.

 

* * *

 

Chiaki comes to awareness to the muted sound of 8-bit game music and the soft click of pressing buttons. Her vision adjusts slowly, gradually; the only visible light is that of the blue-tinted screen of her Game Girl Advance.

Hinata's - Kamukura's face looks alien lit blue, his eyes gleaming blood-red against the light, and he looks at her when Chiaki shifts, wincing as her wounds twinge. Her hand goes to her side and the neat bandage under her shirt, and she says, uncertainly, "Um, thanks."

They're in her room, she realizes, the shadows familiar and comforting in it. There's her TV, and her set of consoles, and she exhales as Kamukura steps toward her, game left paused on the couch. He drops in front of her, fingers deft as he reaches for the bandage on her thigh, and Chiaki's surprised at the state of it, pink and sore, but not as bad as it had felt before. There's a neat line of stitches marching up, and she smiles as Kamukura reapplies the bandage and rises to his feet. "You raided my first-aid kit, huh?"

He meets her gaze, looks impassively away. Chiaki yawns, wide and cracking, and sits beside him when he returns to his game: Gala Omega, she notices, and smiles a little in remembrance. "It's not bad, isn't it?" she says, watching his fingers deft on the buttons. "I guess it helps that it never ends."

"It's not entirely boring," he says, after a moment, and she smiles.

"Yeah," she says. "Maybe we can play co-op again sometime."

His gaze rises from the screen, and Chiaki wraps her arms around herself, feeling self-conscious. "We used to, before," she says, quietly. "You said that you liked it, and it's one of my favourite games, too - we'd sit together after school, and..." It makes her feel like she had then, that terrible sinking feeling that maybe just games weren't enough to make friends, no matter what her teacher said; now, she looks at him, so changed, and wonders what had happened in between. "It'd be fun," she finishes, voice cracking, and she closes her eyes against the moisture lurking in their corners. "And maybe... we could be friends again, too."

He doesn't say anything, but when Chiaki rests her head on his shoulder, watching his ship spin around to the familiar refrain of the game's music, he doesn't protest. She feels her former exhaustion come down on her like a wave, her eyelids heavy, and she struggles to keep them open watching his score slowly rise on the screen. Her fingers are mimicking his, tapping out in well-played patterns, and when she closes her eyes she can see the game playing out like it's right there. He should be Hinata in her dreams; instead, Chiaki's continually faced with him built anew, strange and impassive, and she struggles to reach out to him as he watches her, giving nothing away.

Her eyes still feel gummy when she opens them to the fuzzy light of the sun and the persistent beep of her alarm. She'd think it was all a dream if it weren't for the bandages, the way she hurts. "Hinata-kun?" she asks, rising off the couch, and sees him standing by the window, looking down at the campus below.

He's like a beacon she can't help gravitating too, in her quest for understanding; she joins him and looks down at the flood of Reserve Course students, already gearing for another protest. "It's terrible, isn't it?" she says, and he glances at her for a moment before he returns to watching them.

"It's despair," he says, "that's all."

"They have a right to be angry, though," she says. "From what was on the news... but we're all just students, too. Maybe they're blaming us, but the people who made all of this happen..." She sighs, feeling despondent. "I don't know." It's so easy to ignore it, carefully placed away in Hope's Peak, but she has enough to worry about just in her class. "You said my classmates will be okay?"

"They'll be in class," he says, not answering at all.

"Then," Chiaki says, looking down at her uniform and wincing at the state of it, blood-encrusted and wrinkled from sleep, "I'd better get ready for school."

Her leg still twinges a little whenever she steps too hard, but she's encouraged by how much better she feels once she's showered and dressed, fresh-faced and hopeful. Kamukura follows her down like a shadow, his own school uniform clean and completely generic, but when she opens the door to her classroom he's only a step behind her when she glances back. "Well," she says to him, and checks the time; she's a minute late, but she's sure it's okay. It has to be.

The instant she steps inside, her class falls silent. She finds herself scanning all their faces, counting off everyone, and she can't hide the relief she feels when she sees everyone is there. Everyone is there, and everyone is staring at her; she manages a weak smile and says, ducking her head, "Sorry I'm late, Yukizome-sensei."

She remembers the last time she saw her, Yukizome's absurd, crazed smile as she sent her off to that maze, and the way she's looking at Chiaki now sends shivers down her spine. "It's okay, Nanami-san," Yukizome says, after a long moment. "Who's your friend?"

"A transfer student," Kamukura says, and Chiaki glances at him curiously. "Kamukura Izuru. It's nice to meet you all."

There isn't another desk. Chiaki swallows as she walks carefully down the aisles, trying not to show her limp, while Kamukura follows her only a step behind. Nothing changes, no one moves, until she meets Komaeda's stunned gaze and he starts to smile.

"Nanami-san," he says, with his unique enthusiasm, "your hope must be strong indeed to raise you from death itself!"

"No," Chiaki says, and is conscious of everyone's gaze fixed on her, "no, I didn't die. Hinata - um, Kamukura-kun saved me." She looks at him, his impassive expression, and takes a deep breath to gather her courage. "I don't know what happened yesterday," she says, "but I always knew you guys were there for me. You were rooting for me, right?" she asks, and tries to meet all of their eyes in turn. "And I knew I couldn't die, because... I'm your class rep. You picked me to stand up for you all, and I couldn't let you down. Maybe... after school, we can have a picnic and play some games again?"

It's silent. She watches Tanaka's expression, Sonia's, Koizumi's; the strange struggle of emotions over their faces. She bites her lip and says, "Um, thank you," as she takes her seat, Kamukura still hovering by her side.

Low, he says, "For many of them, their despair is reliant upon the destruction of your hope. For you to exist..."

"What happened?" she whispers. Yukizome is watching them, and Chiaki swallows, tries to hide her face in her hair.

"Emotional disruption hindering their autonomic thought processes," he says. "Brainwashing."

"Is this," she wonders, "what's interesting?" Her classmates seem glued to their seats, and she remembers Tsumiki's graceless push, Yukizome's cheery smile. "And they got to Tsumiki-san and Yukizome-sensei first, right? Why are they..."

"Will they attack you, for being the opposite of their desires? Will hope prevail against despair? There's a crowd," he says, dispassionately, "and now we will see who breaks first."

It's Tsumiki who says, stuttering, "N-Nanami-san, I thought you were - " and runs to her side, expression twisted into despair, and Chiaki hesitates, half-rising in her seat as Tsumiki trips and falls, and it's all Chiaki can do to catch her just in time. The hesitation might have been reasonable when she feels Kamukura's hand brush her shoulder, the briefest of touches, as he plucks something from Tsumiki's hands around Chiaki's back.

"A sedative?" he says, holding it aloft, and suddenly everyone has gotten to their feet and the clamour of noise nearly overwhelms her.

Chiaki's left confused and overwhelmed as someone pulls Tsumiki away from her, as Sonia tugs her hands, Nidai pats her shoulder. "How did you _survive_?" Saionji asks, morbidly curious, as Owari cracks her knuckles and says, "We'll get her!"

"No," Chiaki says, and has to repeat it, louder. "No, don't - Tsumiki-san is just as much a part of this class as I am," she says, and her voice shakes only a little. "As much as any of you. As much as... Yukizome-sensei."

Yukizome smiles, her hands clasped together. "I'm so glad you're with us again, Nanami-san!" and Chiaki swallows the shivery feeling of dread down, down. "But today is a school day - I expect everyone to be on their best behaviour, okay?"

"Yes, sensei," Chiaki says, and she's echoed by the rest of her class. "But, um - could we get Kamukura-kun a desk?"

He says, "There will be no need," and when Chiaki looks at him, confused, his gaze is fixed on the window, where she notices streams of smoke rising into the sky. It's a terribly familiar sight, and she presses her hand against the bandage on her thigh, the pain a constant reminder. "Class will be dismissed."

"I'm sorry?" Yukizome says, and the classroom door bursts open. Chiaki turns.

She’d had almost thought he'd been a dream. She'd seen him for such a short time, and even with Hinata - Kamukura - dogging her steps it's been hard to think of why, to think of that endless maze and the girl who wanted her so badly dead. She can feel the breath pushed out of her chest as she looks at him, his mismatched eyes and remembers the soul-deep understanding he looked at her with, like he knew everything about her - and still wanted to be her friend. "Hinata-kun," she says, and his gaze sweeps the room and settles on her and Kamukura.

"We need to go," he says. "Hope's Peak won't survive much longer."

"But - my class - " Chiaki says. The room is a hissing mess of questions, her classmates nudging each other, Yukizome's slow frown, and she doesn't know if her classmates are okay, doesn't know if Tsumiki and Yukizome can ever be. "Can they come too?"

Hinata's expression softens, and his eyes land on Yukizome, stepping forward with her arms crossed. "Sorry, sensei," he says, "but things have moved a little faster than I expected. You can all come," he says, directed to the class. "I have a place for the day, at least. One of Munakata's."

"Kyousuke's involved in this, too?" Yukizome says, eyebrows furrowing, and Hinata's mouth twitches a little.

"I just told him who was behind everything," he says. "That's all. Nanami?"

Chiaki startles, says, "Oh," and starts encouraging everyone to follow him out the door. "I trust Hinata-kun," she repeats, "we'll be safe, I promise," even though she’s not sure if she should. She looks at everyone as they walk out, Ibuki's strange excitement, Kuzuryuu's viciousness as he kicks Tsumiki's shin on the way, and she isn't sure at all that anything's been fixed. "What did you think would happen?" she says.

Kamukura, walking by her side, says, "The recalibration still taken hold, but with you as the authority. The effect seems to have lessened," he says, "but it's difficult to analyse."

"Do you know how we could fix it?" she asks, and follows his gaze to Hinata, herding them out the front doors. "Does he?"

"The event that made him..." Kamukura trails off, and Chiaki finds his gaze fixed on her when she looks up. He's the one who looks away. "Do you miss your friend, Nanami-san?"

"You mean," Chiaki says, "Hinata-kun? You are him," she says. "Just because you've lost your memories, because you've changed... like the other Hinata-kun, I know you're both the person who played video games with me after school when I was lonely."

"That was who I was before," he says, and she shakes her head.

"You're still the same person," she says, stubbornly. "And even if you don't remember... we can make new memories now, okay?"

His steady gaze on her is what lingers in her mind when they step outside. It's just as bad as it was yesterday, just as bad as it's been for so long - signs and banners, students their age just trying to be heard. Chiaki wants to help them, but she has no idea how, and even as they skirt the barrier of security and start walking away she thinks about being a Reserve Course student, of the dead girl who took her place. "What's happened to Hope's Peak?" she says, and Kamukura doesn't answer. She thinks he doesn't need to.

Hinata takes them all to a sprawlingly large house, with more than a dozen rooms and almost as many bathrooms, and when Chiaki gets first choice after their teacher she chooses one with a large bed and open windows that look out over the city and Hope's Peak Academy. She can see the collapse of the underground tunnels they were in yesterday, roped off with yellow tape, and doesn't startle when she looks beside her and sees Hinata there.

"Enoshima-san had a plan for the Reserve Course," he says, after a moment. "But I've removed her access to their phone numbers, so it'll take more than a day for her to retrieve them again. And by then, it'll be too late."

"Brainwashing?" Chiaki says, though it still sounds so strange, and Hinata smiles wryly.

"Yeah," he says. "Enoshima's technique... it's simple, but very effective. Nearly impossible to counter." He sighs, a short, heavy exhale, and shakes his head, closing his mismatched eyes. "I could go the other way, of course, but that would be just as bad - brainwashing them to hope instead of despair."

"They're primed to seek despair, right?" Chiaki says, and despite everything she tries to frame it as a game, stats and choices. "Can you just... brainwash them back into a normal emotional range?"

Hinata smiles at her. "That's what I'm trying," he says, "but it'll be quite a bit more work." He turns his head, just slightly, and Chiaki sees Kamukura lurking silent at the door. "I could use some help."

"Any typical emotional response," Kamukura says, "has wide inter-individual variability." He steps forward, closing the door behind him, and Chiaki glances between them as they have what seems to be a staring contest until Hinata huffs a short laugh and looks away.

"You're right," he says, "but isn't that what makes it interesting?"

"And... my class?" Chiaki ventures. "Tsumiki-san and Yukizome-sensei, they were brainwashed before, right? Can they - can they be fixed, too? And everyone else. Even though they seem okay for now, I think... I think they're not."

"No," Hinata says, "you're right. It's a lot more complicated for your friends, and with you in the mix..."

"Yukizome Chisa required physical intervention," Kamukura says, and Hinata's expression turns distant.

"I remember," he says. "There may be one way."

"If I can help," Chiaki starts, and Hinata smiles at her.

"If we end up doing what I'm thinking," he says, "it'll be a long trip. Your class will need some convincing, I think."

"Then," Chiaki says, "I'll convince them. It'll work, right?"

"It'll work."

Hinata's pulled out a laptop by the time she gets to the door, passing Kamukura on the way. He stops her, not by any specific action but by not moving as she reaches for the knob, and she looks at him curiously when he says, abruptly, "This method made you who you are."

"Yes," Hinata says, looking up. "But that was a different time. We needed to restore our - your class to how they are now, and picked the start of the year; all of our memories were reset to that point."

"That's why," Chiaki says, and he nods.

"It's why I remember you. But the solution wasn't carried out to completion, and we ended up with every memory, including exposure to the despair video." He meets Chiaki's gaze squarely. "I would assume for most of your class a constant exposure to hope would help them recover, in time, particularly with you. But for the others..."

"That's why we need the trip?"

"That's why," he says, and raises his eyebrows at his other self. "Now, an unbrainwashing video isn't going to make itself, you know."

Chiaki finds herself giggling despite herself, the absurdity of everything catching up to her, almost hysterical. Both Hinatas are staring at her like she's the strangest thing they've seen all day, one more fond, one more analytical, and she covers her mouth, trying to stop. "I - I can't," she says, gasping, and Kamukura, standing by her side, puts his hand on her elbow. She lets it ground her, closing her eyes until it's the only thing she feels, and then looks up and gives him a shaky smile. "You can do it, right?" she asks him, and shifts her gaze to Hinata. "Both of you?"

"It will be done," Kamukura says, and it feels almost comforting to have him there, the boy who saved her life and, just maybe, still wants to be her friend. Chiaki bites her lip and on impulse wraps her arms around him just for a second before she dashes out the door.

She doesn't hear what happens after that, too far down the hall, but if she was there she'd hear Hinata's laugh, a little too knowing, as Kamukura watched her go.

 

* * *

 

They wake her up once they finish. She's yawning, rubbing sleep out of her eyes, and Hinata taps a steady, comforting rhythm on her ankle, sticking out from the sheets. He says, "It's done," once he comes into focus, and she makes a curious, sleepy noise as she curls out, running her fingers through her hair.

"The brainwashing video?"

"Anti-brainwashing," Hinata says, but he's smiling. "I thought you'd like to know."

"Does it work?" she wonders. "Have you sent it yet?"

"That's... the difficulty," Hinata says. "The best way would be to test it on an individual brainwashed with the original video."

"Tsumiki Mikan," says Kamukura, and Chiaki peers at him, half-hidden in the shadows of the room.

"Should I get her to come here, then?"

"You'll need protection," Hinata says. "After the last time..." He shares a look with Kamukura.

Chiaki swallows, sliding out of bed and brushing the creases out of her uniform. "I don't think she'll hurt me," she says. "She doesn't really want to."

"She's consumed by despair," Kamukura says.

"Then," Chiaki says, "it must give her a lot of despair to think of me suffering, right? She - she still wants to be my friend." She meets each of their gazes in turn. "And with the way the class has been treating her... I don't know. But I think she'll come."

Hinata looks away first, huffing a short laugh. "You haven't changed at all," he says, but he sounds terribly fond, and Chiaki can feel her face warm. "Good luck, Nanami."

"Considering Komaeda-san's luck," she says, and is gratified by his answering smile. "I'll be okay," she says. "I promise."

She'd talked to them all only a half-dozen hours earlier, sitting down in front of her class. "There'll be a trip," she'd said, "it's pretty far, over a day, and once we're there we might have to stay a few weeks. I understand if you don't want to go, but - I think we should think of it as a field trip, an opportunity to strengthen our bonds together. Hope's Peak is struggling right now, and I know... I know what happened was strange, and it hurt, but I believe in us, guys."

Yukizome had smiled at her, said, "You're really living up to your position as Class Rep, Nanami-san," to everyone's agreement. Chiaki had looked into her eyes and tried to keep her smile steady as her heart sank.

But it means that everyone's on her side, at least in this. Chiaki sidles up to Pekoyama, watching Mioda and Koizumi take on Owari in a foosball competition that has nearly everyone watching, entranced and cheering; she says, "Hey," and Pekoyama doesn't startle at all.

"Nanami-san," she says. "Is everything okay?"

"Are any of you sleeping?" Chiaki says, and smiles at her as Pekoyama's mouth twitches slightly. "I was looking for Tsumiki-san, actually."

Her face goes blank, and Chiaki says, "Please. I need to talk to her. You trust me, right?"

"We don't trust her," Pekoyama says, "but yes." She looks over to the stairs set back from the hallway, spiraling up. "Komaeda-san is watching her. They're in the second room to the left."

Chiaki isn't sure whether she should be worried or relieved, but she says, "Thanks," anyway. It'd be best, she knows, if she can manage this without interference - or at least, without too much, and so she ducks away quietly without alerting anyone else to her presence. Taking the stairs carefully, she knocks twice on the door and opens it.

Komaeda's sitting on the bed, legs crossed, facing the window, and his head turns when she walks in. "Nanami-san!" he exclaims. "What brings you here?"

"I wanted to talk to Tsumiki-san," she says, and looks over to her classmate, curled up on the bed, peering at Chiaki with a strange fervid light in her eyes. "Um, if it's okay, alone."

"Your hope will shine bright enough to break through her despair," Komaeda says, nodding. "Of course, Nanami-san."

When he leaves, closing the door softly behind him, Chiaki sits down on the edge of the bed, still unsure what she wants to say. She can't understand Tsumiki's obsession, her yearning for despair - but just knowing it puts her actions into perspective, and Chiaki starts, "I - I wanted to say... I'm sorry."

"S-sorry?" Tsumiki says, shrinking back, and Chiaki had thought they were friends, but perhaps she just had never tried hard enough. "W-why?"

"I didn't help you," she says. "Before - before all this, I never noticed, and you - " She swallows, shakes her head. "I'm sorry that... you'd think my death would bring everyone the most despair."

"I-it would," Tsumiki says. "It did. B-but you..."

"Yeah," Chiaki says, "so I'm sorry that you - you didn't feel like you were part of the class, that you weren't united until... until me dying could help. I could've done more, but now..." She looks at Tsumiki, confused and shrinking away, and Chiaki bites her lip and looks down. "I have something for you," she says. "And I promise... I'll be a better classmate from now on. A better friend."

"S-something for me?" Tsumiki says, hesitating, and Chiaki offers her a tentative smile.

"I promise," she says, "I'll make sure you're not treated like this anymore. I... I don't know if it brings you despair, but I think everyone else still yearns for despair, too."

"A-and you?" Tsumiki asks, and Chiaki looks at her hands, resting in her lap.

"I don't know," she says, and rises to her feet, holding out her hand. "Will you come with me, Tsumiki-san?"

If she were all alone, it would be easy, she thinks. It seems freeing, the way her classmates experience it; the way Kuzuryuu's mouth curls into a smirk, the way Nidai's eyes gleam as he jumps into the fight, the slight smile on Yukizome's face as she makes a tacit attempt at breaking everyone apart. But apart from her class Chiaki has Hinata, has two of him, and they both believe in her so much it hurts.

Tsumiki takes her hand.

Chiaki doesn't know what she expects when she returns with her in tow, but it isn't the hum of noise, the flash of a blue screen in her eyes before someone puts their hand over them, tugging her carefully away. She feels drawn to it, the low, soothing sound, and can't imagine what it must be like as she's led to the other side of the screen before she's released. Kamukura is standing next to her, his arms, falling to his sides, while Hinata is watching Tsumiki carefully as she stands, stock-still, in front of the screen.

Chiaki opens her mouth, maybe to ask something, but she's stopped by Kamukura's hand on her arm, the minute shake of his head. It's then, standing there, that she feels aware of how close he is, the warmth of his body, the waterfall of his hair, and she can't help but wonder what he would do if she tangled their fingers together, if she -

Tsumiki gasps suddenly, and Chiaki is pulled away from her thoughts as she hurries forward. No-one stops her and she reaches the other girl with time to spare as the last flickering light on the screen dies out, the last note of that enticing song; she wraps her arms around Tsumiki's shoulders and Tsumiki sobs, "I-I'm sorry," over and over again, into Chiaki's shoulder.

"No," Chiaki says, "it's not your fault," and she pulls her away to brush the tears away from her face. "We'll play games together again, okay?"

"I-I tried to kill you," Tsumiki whispers. "I-I don't know - "

"It wasn't your fault," Chiaki repeats. "And I'll make sure everyone knows." When she stands, Tsumiki does too, hesitating as she looks at the door. "They're all our classmates, Tsumiki-san - our friends. And... I'll need your help, to help everyone like we managed to help you."

"M-my help?" Tsumiki stutters, wrapping her arms around herself, shaking her head furiously. "N-no, I couldn't..."

"Please," Chiaki says, "think about it, at least, okay?"

Tsumiki looks at her, and Chiaki hopes she sees what she's looking for in her face as she smiles tentatively. "I-I," Tsumiki starts, and closes her eyes, looking at the floor. "Thank you."

"Don't," Chiaki says, "it's my duty as Class Rep to look after you all, right? You all voted me in, so I have to do my best."

The capitulation of her class to Chiaki's request for them to treat Tsumiki normally feels strange. It's the way they look at her, eyes shining, like she's something more than she is, something more than just the girl who organised picnics and play-dates, something more than the girl who just wanted to be friends. It makes her teeth hurt and she swallows down her worry as she looks at Yukizome, embracing Tsumiki in her arms. They're working on it, she reminds herself. They'll all be okay, soon.

And some of it's sooner than the rest, Hinata holding his phone out to her when she returns. "I thought you might like to do the honors," he says, and she looks out the window to the shadow of Hope's Peak, looming dark against the fires of the protesters. "You just need to send it."

"What happened?" she says, watching the smoke rise into the night sky. "What will?"

"They'll survive," Hinata says. "The rest... it's up to them."

"My class... it'll never be the same again, will it?"

"No," says Kamukura. "Things change."

Chiaki smiles at him, tentatively. "Yeah," she says, "I guess so," and she presses _send_.

 

* * *

 

The sunlight is bright and disarming, the breeze cool, and Chiaki wraps her arms around herself as she shivers in it, looking up into the sky. It's amazing what they've done, Hinata and Kamukura both, since they commandeered a ship and left their school - and life - behind.

In reality, her and all her classmates are sleeping in hastily-fashioned life-support pods, their physical bodies put to sleep. But here they are in a facsimile of reality, and Chiaki is so glad of the disappearance of the darkness behind Yukizome's eyes, the loss of that terrible, strange reverence her classmates used to sport. They lost a few days, a week or two in Yukizome's case, and already she knows this was the right idea.

And Hinata's here, too. "Are you going in?" he asks, and she tilts her head and smiles at him.

"Of course," she says. "You should come, too."

He shakes his head, tugging at the hem of his shirt. "I'll pass," he says. "Someone needs to stay dry."

"Hey," Chiaki says, and he smiles at her as her name rings in the distance, her classmates waving at her to join them. "You'll be okay?"

"Even if something goes wrong," he says, "we do have a backup plan, remember?"

"I know," she says. "You need to be a better classmate though, Hinata-kun."

He huffs a laugh at her smile, but his expression turns distant as he looks out over the water. "I will be," he says. "Izuru, too. It might help him see..."

"You might not be exactly the same," she says. "But inside, he's Hinata-kun, too."

Hinata grins at her, sly. "I'm sure he knows that by now, after you spent so much time together - "

"Hinata-kun," Chiaki protests. She can feel her face growing warm. "You're my friends. Both of you."

"I'm glad," he says. "He could use one. And... I guess if I'm stuck here, I could, too."

She feels something warm and pleased bubbling up in her chest, and she smiles. "Next time," she threatens, "I'll make sure you come swimming, too."

"Hey," he protests, "you're not pushing Kuzuryuu in."

"Because he's still friends with everyone," she says, "and you - if you want to be classmates with everyone, you need to try harder, Hinata-kun."

"You're the expert," he says, but his smile is fading as he watches the horizon. "But I think it'll have to wait a little longer."

Chiaki turns, following his gaze, and frowns at the slow grey clouds rolling in. "You didn't make that," she says, and he shakes his head.

"I should've expected this," he says. "I'm sorry, Nanami. I won't be able to save you from everything after all."

"Nothing bad will happen," she says firmly, even as she can feel a shiver of dread run down her spine. "Everyone here is my classmate - my friend - and we can stand up to heaps of things. I believe in everyone, you know?"

He says, "I know." When she looks at him, he's smiling. "Please, never lose that optimism, okay?"

Doubtfully, she says, "I'll try."

The storm's rolling in, the waves starting to roil, and she leaves Hinata behind to get all of her classmates out of the water. Yukizome is already herding everyone back to the beach, where their towels and clothes await, and she smiles at Chiaki so painfully proud Chiaki can't help but smile back.

"The weather here was supposed to be great," Yukizome says, peering into the sky, her eyebrows furrowing. "All right, everyone, back to your cabins!"

"Wait," Chiaki says, and that's when the bear appears.

He comes with a roll of thunder, a flash of a lightning storm, and takes utter delight in their horror. He doesn't have her voice, or even her cadence from what little she heard, but Chiaki's still thrown back to running for her life, the least fun game she's ever played as he starts to ruin her class once again. "Enoshima Junko," she whispers despite herself, and the bear turns to her, an intelligent alien gleam in its beady eye.

"Did you say something?" he says, tilting his head curiously, and Chiaki swallows and shakes her head.

"It won't work," Yukizome says with a rock-solid certainty, her hands on her hips. "We’re a class."

"But..." Monokuma says, voice an eerie sing-song, "what if I told you you're not? You've lost your memories, you know! You wouldn't know who's a traitor - and there is one!"

"Our memories?"

"Well, you think you're still in school, don't you? In reality, it's been a whole year since then!"

"But that's not - " Chiaki starts and then stops herself, looking over at Hinata, lingering by the edge of the group. He's keeping an eye on Yukizome, and Chiaki watches her, nearly fuming as she steps forward. Chiaki puts her hand on her teacher's arm and says, "Sensei, don't."

"Nanami-san," Yukizome says, and Chiaki slides a glance toward Monokuma, watching them and their class with all appearance of entertainment. Yukizome shakes her head, gives Chiaki a wan smile, and says, "No, you're right."

There are a million things Hinata added to the simulation to protect them. Chiaki only knows a few, the rules spelled out in their handbooks, the knowledge of her room as a sanctuary. She heads there once they're done, once Monokuma is gone and Yukizome has lifted their spirits, but she can't ignore the way her class avoids Hinata like the plague. "They think you're the traitor," she says, sitting cross-legged on her bed, and he, inexplicably, laughs.

"Technically," he says, "I am."

Chiaki shakes her head, but she's smiling. "Hinata-kun," she says, "what happened? That first time. Why - why did you come here?"

He says, "It's a long story," and Chiaki says, "We have time."

"Not today," he says, "not now. There's a virus to kill, remember?" He smiles, and she matches it, a little hesitantly. "Nanami," he starts, "maybe... you should know. It's probably thanks to you I even exist, like this."

"But," Chiaki says, "I died," and he shakes his head.

"This simulation is based on the one our whole class was in, back where I came from," he says. "I... there was an observer, programmed into the system, set to draw on everyone's memories. And in everyone's memories was you."

"I..." Chiaki says, and he smiles at her.

"She wasn't entirely you," he says, "and you're not entirely her. But... she had your hope, Nanami. It's pretty amazing, actually."

Feeling her face warm, Chiaki ducks her head. "Hinata-kun," she says, "you know I'm not doing anything. I couldn't do it without everyone. Or you."

"You'd do well enough," he says. "But hopefully this time, it'll turn out for the better."

"It will," Chiaki says. "Believe in all of us, okay? Maybe... maybe it's because you weren't all friends, or something's changed - but it'll be fine."

He says, "I'll trust in you, then, Nanami-san," and she bites her lip and looks into his mismatched eyes.

"Hinata-kun," she says, and her hands go to her hair. She only fiddles with her hairpin for a moment before she pulls it out, curling her fingers around his as she drops it into her hand. "You had hers, right? Now... you have a promise for a better future."

His expression is unreadable as he looks down at their hands, entwined. When he looks up there's something that makes Chiaki feel warm, a strange sort of expectant, and his mouth curls into a smile when he raises their joined hands, presses his lips to her knuckles. "Thank you."

He starts to drop her hand and she says, "No, thank _you_ ," and he's always seemed to look at her like a ghost, but now, she thinks, he's here; now, she thinks, he's hers. She curls her fingers in his school tie and pulls him down, and his mouth opens under hers in an exhaled laugh as she drags him into a kiss. "Hinata-kun," she breathes, when they break apart, and he presses the curve of his smile against her cheek.

"It's Hajime," he says, and she muffles her giggle into the curve of his neck.

"Hajime-kun, then," she says, pulling back to smile at him, and that's when she catches sight of Kamukura standing in the doorway, utterly silent.

Hajime leans forward, closing his eyes, so close she can feel his eyelashes flutter against her cheek. "You should go," he says, quietly, and she searches his gaze, not sure what she wants to find. The corner of his mouth lifts, and she exhales and pulls away, rising to her feet.

Kamukura's still standing at the door to her bathroom, the expanded space of a room not quite fitting in the reality it surrounds. "Hi," Chiaki says, and lifts herself to the bench, swinging her legs. She can't tell what he's thinking, his curious red gaze on her, and she drops her gaze to her knees. "I'm sorry, Hinata-kun."

"Why?" he asks, and she shakes her head, looking out through the frosted glass to Hajime, sitting on the bed, already having pulled out one of her spare game systems.

"I," she starts, and swallows. "You're both my friends, Hinata-kun. You know that, right?"

He says, "He remembers you," and she purses her mouth, puffing her cheeks out in a stubborn frown.

"No," she says, "it's not that. Maybe... you remember different things, but you're both Hinata-kun. You're different, but inside... I think, you're still that person. You're still someone I like."

"Like," he repeats, eyebrows raised slightly, and she can feel her face warm but holds his gaze.

"Hinata-kun," she says.

"Why do you call me that? My name is Kamukura Izuru."

"It's because... that's who I see, when I look at you," she says, quietly. "Would you - do you want me to call you Kamukura-kun?"

"You call him Hajime," he says.

Flushing, confused, she says, "Well, I - " and that's when he steps forward and kisses her.

They're not the same, for all they're the same person. She feels dazed, overwhelmed; he presses forward and steals her breath away, not the giddy delighted joy of kissing Hajime but a strange, terrifying sense of standing on a precipice about to fall. "What - " she manages, and he looks almost satisfied.

"Now you can call me Izuru," he says, and she shakes her head, eyebrows pulling together.

"But Hinata-kun already calls you Izuru," she says, "and - I mean, it isn't a requirement, Izuru-kun, you can just ask..." She feels strange and lost, and when she looks at him he's looking through the frosted glass to her room, to - Hinata. She doesn't feel like she understands him at all, but she starts, hesitating, "Um, did you - did you want to - "

He looks at her, and says, "He's interesting, that's all."

It's the way he says it. It's like the time he said she was interesting or the way Hinata says the word with implications on implications, something Chiaki, not being him, can never quite understand. Slowly, she says, "He's like you." She looks down at her hands. "Izuru-kun, you know... I don't think he'd mind. He - he brought you into all of this, you know." And now that she thinks of it, she remembers Hinata's easy concessions, him sending Kamukura to her; she wonders if he expected this, or if it'll surprise him just as much as everything that's happened since has surprised her. "And... I don't mind, either."

Because she can't, not when the thought of it makes her blush, not when they've both saved her life a dozen times over, not when they're both, still, her very best friends. Kamukura studies her for just a moment before he leaves, the door slid open, and Chiaki squeezes her eyes shut, hoping she didn't ruin everything.

When she opens her eyes it's to Kamukura pulling away, the shades of Hinata's expression lost over the distance between them. But when he turns to look at her she can see the curve of his smile, and she exhales, a little shakily, as she hops off the counter and walks uncertainly toward them.

"Hey," Hinata says, and her smile feels like it's wavering as she stops a few steps away. He holds out her game system, paused mid-level, and says, "Do you want to play?"

She wants to. She takes her game system back, rests her fingers on the buttons, and looks down at the pixelated screen. "Hinata-kun," she says, quietly, "what's going to happen? To all of us? To my class?"

"Izuru's not on the class roster," Hinata says, "which means he's not subject to their rules."

Chiaki looks up at him, and Kamukura, his mouth tight at the corners. "Then - Izuru-kun, could you - could you stop Enoshima-san?"

His eyes shift to her almost languidly, and she swallows. "My class," she says, "they've already been through so much. I... I just want them to be okay."

Hinata says mildly, "As an external moderator, you're also not subject to any of the rules. Including those about receiving harm."

"A fight, then?" Kamukura's gaze turns distant, thoughtful. "Hm."

Chiaki says, "Please."

He meets her gaze, and inclines his head almost imperceptibly before he turns away. "I suppose it won't be entirety boring."

"Hey," Chiaki says, "be careful, okay?"

"I won't need to," he says.

“It’s not that,” Chiaki starts, but the door’s already swung shut behind him.

She sighs, mouth pursed, and Hinata chuckles. "I think you're getting through to him," he says, and Chiaki makes a face at him as he presses his smile into her hair.

"Maybe."

"You were the one who pushed it, weren't you? I can't imagine..."

"You mean earlier?" Chiaki wonders. "No, it wasn't... he kissed me first."

Hinata's expression is thoughtful when she looks up into his face. "Huh," he says.

"Was it... was it a bad idea?" Chiaki asks, hesitantly. "I'd thought, with you..."

"No," he says, "nothing like that. It's interesting, that's all."

"Now you sound like him," she says, a little amused, and he laughs.

"We are the same person, Nanami-san," he says. "Just with different experiences."

She follows his gaze to her cabin door, to the programmed reality outside. In here, it doesn't feel like it's fake, her bed and her TV, her consoles and controllers, and she wonders about Monokuma and Enoshima and Kamukura, too. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

"Nanami," he starts, and she gives him a look that makes his mouth quirk. "Chiaki. I promise, he'll be fine."

She falls asleep with her head on his shoulder, her controller falling from her fingers, and misses him gently setting it aside.

 

* * *

 

They don't see Kamukura until later the next day. She's discussing a screen set-up for games with Souda when it happens, the bear popping up in the middle of the room without any fanfare, fuming and red-faced.

"Someone's destroyed all my Monobeasts! Who was it? Was it you? Or you?" Monokuma's gaze fixes on all of them, though it slides right over Hinata, and Chiaki wonders how he manages it as Monokuma's eye narrows on Yukizome, her mouth pursed in a frown. "You know what happened, don't you?"

"Even if I did," Yukizome says, "I wouldn't tell you."

Monokuma makes a failure noise, the sound of someone dying in a game. "Wrong answer!" He tilts his head, as though in thought, and Chiaki watches Hinata whose gaze is fixed on the stairs. "I think... I can probably count that as an attack against me, right? I'm hurt, Yukizome-sensei, so hurt, and you know what the best thing to do about hurt is?"

He doesn't continue, and after a long moment Mitarai says, "What?"

Monokuma's mouth stretches into a fanged grin. "Revenge, of course!"

It's like an action game, she thinks; Monokuma whirls toward Yukizome, claws outstretched, and Chiaki's halfway to a reaction, halfway but not close enough when there's a flash of movement and Yukizome falls to the side and saved by their class, arms reaching out to catch her. Kamukura stands there, hair swaying slightly with the movement, with Monokuma pulled up short in front of him.

Monokuma's eye narrows, and he says, "Kamukura Izuru."

"An experiment's results can't be kept if there are outside influences," Kamukura says. "You're a disruption."

"Don't you remember?" Monokuma says, in a high-pitched sing-song. "Kamukura-kun, hope isn't exciting. Peace means everything is the same, all the time. It's only when you have Despair - and chaos - that things start to stir up!"

"Despair..." Kamukura says, "It's as predictable as hope." He steps forward, slowly, and Chiaki holds her breath. "What's interesting are people."

"People?" Monokuma scoffs. "They'll do whatever you tell them to."

"What happens once the world turns to despair?" Kamukura's head is turned slightly, and when Chiaki looks at Hinata, he's holding Kamukura's gaze steadily. "It's boring. You're boring."

Monokuma's watching him narrowly, and Chiaki says quietly, "Izuru-kun, please be careful," when Kamukura's gaze sweeps over all of them. He meets her eyes and the corner of his mouth lifts slightly.

"I think I understand," he says. "It isn't because I need it. It's because..."

"Yeah," Chiaki says, smiling.

"Don't worry," he says. "I'll be fine."

She knows. But she can't help but worry as Yukizome herds them out, as their manufactured reality starts fracturing around them, glitches too hard to miss, and she wraps her arms around herself for a moment, closing her eyes. "Will this stop everything?" she asks.

"He's rooted the virus out from most of the systems," Hinata says. "This'll be the last."

"I just," she says, "want things to be good again, like they were." He looks at her, and she ducks her head. “I know,” she says. “It won’t be. But… I can hope, can’t I? That we can get out of here and everything will eventually be okay?”

Hinata smiles, oddly gentle, and she blinks, hard. “Yeah,” he says. “Keep it. That hope.”

 

* * *

 

The sound of the waves seems to repeat itself every thirty minutes, Chiaki's discovered. She drops one hand from her game to cover her yawn, because she's falling behind anyway even as Hinata and Kamukura compete for the highest score. "We need to go back," she says, "don't we?"

Hinata looks over at her as she lets her console fall to her side, her score high but not high enough. "This place isn't real," he says, and she sighs.

"It was nice while it lasted, though," she says. "Don't you think?" She looks out over the ocean, sparkling blue. "I... I know we have to stop, and go back to the real world. But what's happened? Enoshima-san, and Hope's Peak... it's just - uncomplicated here."

Kamukura makes a thoughtful, humming noise into the curve of her neck, and Chiaki twists her head to glance at him; he looks up after a moment, eyebrows raised slightly, and says, "It's boring."

Sighing, she says, "Yeah, you're right. And we can't do anything here."

"Enoshima-san may be a problem," Hinata says, "and Hope's Peak will probably be close to collapse. But the world..."

"It should be fine, right? And when we get out, everyone will be okay again."

"Even better," Hinata says, and when she smiles at him he leans forward, kissing her until she feels the still-surprising warmth of it coil in her gut. It's his hands on her waist, Kamukura's mouth on her neck, and when he pulls away she feels heated and flushed.

"Hey," she protests, a little shakily, "that's cheating."

"There's no such thing," Kamukura says dismissively, "only taking advantage of the rules - " and Chiaki shares a look with Hinata before he cuts Kamukura off with a kiss; Chiaki presses herself up against his side, threads a hand up his shirt, which is when Kamukura pushes Hinata back, slightly pink-cheeked and looking more than a little ruffled. "You," he says, and whatever they're trying to do sends them all sprawling, a tangle of limbs in a kick-up of sand, and Chiaki's laughing, giddy and delighted.

Hinata sighs, shifts his elbow from Chiaki's stomach to the ground as he lifts himself up. "I think our class is coming."

Scrambling to right herself, Chiaki manages to brush herself free of almost all the sand as her classmates start trooping in, carrying blankets and umbrellas and coolers and picnic baskets, too. She waves them over and they all set up around her, pulling off shirts for bathing suits as Yukizome directs them everywhere, and Chiaki lends a hand in laying out a blanket, setting her game aside.

"You should come," she says, to Hinata and Kamukura, and Hinata looks thoughtfully out into the sun as Kamukura crosses his arms across his chest. "You're part of this class, too."

"Yeah!" Owari says, stretching her arms over her head as her jaw cracks around a yawn. "You saved us from that weird bear, right?" She runs into the ocean, sparkling and unreal, and Chiaki purses her lips and stares at them pointedly.

"Of course you should come," Sonia says. "Hinata-san, Kamukura-san." She squints at them, and adds, "You look rather similar, you know."

“We know,” Hinata says.

"Is he your twin?" Sonia wonders. "Oh, or your clone?"

Hinata and Kamukura share a glance, and Chiaki can't help her smile. There's still the world to deal with, Enoshima and Hope's Peak and Despair, and maybe sometimes Hinata is quiet for the world he left behind, sometimes Kamukura stares blankly out into space, as though he's wondering why he's there with them at all. But they're good, she knows, and they won't lose. Things will get better.

"Yeah," Hinata says. "Something like that."


End file.
